The Power of Iconography: The Ubiquitous "O"

A good friend of mine tipped me off to this YouTube video about Obama's ubiquitous O.  Bill Whittle of PJTV offers some insight into Obama's O -- the branding of America.



Some of Whittle's finer points:

• The O is the gold standard of branding: plowed fields of grain under the sunrise of a new tomorrow; the circle - complete and self-contained; Whittle compares this to the occasional use of "W" during the presidential campaign, but then set aside thereafter

• From Obama's website Whittle analyzes the O: all traditional icons fade out with the O pulling your eye into the future; the American eagle isn't perched but seems to be on the verge of flying away, the American flag falling, our nation's motto "e pluribus unum" is virtually unreadable - like letters stamped in soft sand.  The only things that's sharp and well-defined in this image of the circle -- the O.  That's what's permanent and immovable.  Everything else is fading away.

• mybarackobama.com: run by the Democratic National Committee -- all the people depicted here are "branded";

• Whittle makes good points of how poorly the RNC has packaged its image -- the RNC uses stodgy, uninspired iconography

• The Obama "O" is EVERYWHERE

• Whittle points out that we are seeing an individual brand being used alongside, or sometimes in place of, the Seal of the POTUS.  The DNC's use of it: is it a perpetual campaign; a branding of ideology; a cult of personality

• The O is shorthand for all of the positive the President wants to project.  It is also being used as a shorthand of the negative.  (Love the spoofs of the brand!  LOL is my favorite.)

[Thanks, C, for this tasty morsel!]